Namco Develops for NeoGeo Pocket Color

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The big developer in Japan takes a liking to SNK's handheld. Find out what its first project is.

By IGN Staff

In one of SNK's biggest moves for NeoGeo Pocket Color third-party development, the company has scored the support of Namco, one of Japan's biggest developers. Namco's first product will be a pixel-perfect conversion of Pac-Man, the classic arcade game that's celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

SNK stopped by the offices today to show us an early revision of the game. Pac-Man on the NeoGeo Pocket Color is literally pixel-perfect. There are two ways to play the game: scrolling and full-screen. In full-screen you see the entire map on-screen at once, but lose out on the graphic resolution. In scrolling mode, you get a direct, pixel-perfect transfer of the arcade, but the screen scrolls to reveal the portions of the map that get cut off of the screen.

In our brief playtime with the game, we noticed that the AI of the ghosts was straight out of the arcade version. We're guessing that the patterns will be identical too.

Pac-Man will be ready for sale the first month the NeoGeo Pocket Color is on store shelves: August.